Many have tried, but few actors have nailed the Kiwi accent. Dominic Corry looks at the successful ones, and some of the failures.

Sun/Son by Eb and Sparrow is a whole-hearted, deep-hued Americana.

The man with the octopus dreadlocks is becoming a ubiquitous voice across pop, hip-hop and R&B, the go-to guy for sweet hooks on depressing sex jams.

Delaney Davidson is known for blues and country songs tinged with pathos, a wizened understanding of the human condition and a touch of humour.

The film version of a well-regarded stage play, which was itself based on a true story, was always going to be at high risk of being a weepie of cloying sentimentality.

Leaving the theatre after watching this documentary about Carl Boenish, father of the base-jumping movement, I couldn't help but think how far skydivers have pushed the sport.

The zombie drama, which follows some of the last surviving humans in an undead-ravaged America, is by most counts the highest rating cable series of all time.

Can The Walking Dead spin-off capitalise on the zombie franchise's huge success? Chris Schulz checks out the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead, starring our own Cliff Curtis.

It's a bold call to make murder victim the cruel and deserving villain, but it works, writes Duncan Greive.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Thursday concert had enough joie de vivre for a lifetime of Bastille Day celebrations, writes William Dart.

In the summer of 2012, Call Me Maybe exploded across radio, launching talent agent Scooter Braun's latest project Carly Rae Jepsen into the limelight.

Playwright Gary Stalker's intriguingly titled work pulls off a surprising feat with sophisticated, unashamedly literary writing.

The three choreographers contributing state of the art pieces for this ground-breaking season with the New Zealand Dance Company were given the brief of "light, illumination, space, image and movement" by the company's artistic director Shona McCullagh.

The finale of True Detective season two was everything the previous episodes hadn't been. It was exciting, it was tense, most of all, it was coherent.

Humans is a "sci-fi thriller" in the most accessible, engaging sense of those words, set in a parallel near-future where synthetic humans - "synths" - are a common household appliance.

A grinding, persuasive power binds this collection of short fiction and essays, many of which have been published elsewhere in the past two or three years.

A mid-winter Messiah comes with a certain olde worlde appeal and on Sunday Viva Voce went to some lengths to make this a Messiah with a difference.

Duncan Greive has a look at TV3's new 7pm offering - Story. So what's the verdict?

In Benjamin Markovits' vivid new novel, the city becomes a symptom of America gone wrong. He tells Mick Brown about losing out and fitting in.

When he founded Te Araroa - the national walkway - Geoff Chapple encouraged us to go out and see the extraordinary beauty of this land of the long white cloud.

So one Direction have made their first musical statement post-Zayn Malik's departure.

Adam Lambert played Auckland's Civic Theatre last night, delighting a full house of devoted fans with his "therapy session".

I must admit my previous undying admiration for Wellington's creative wonder boys The Phoenix Foundation died a little after 2010 album Buffalo which had one great song - that title track - and nothing much else to remember it by.

Neighbours. Sure they're fine now, but what about when we're all living underwater?" asks Bill Kerton, presenting a premise more exciting than the one about to be retread more times than a farmer pacing a fence.

Unnecessary narration and lazy scripting make TVNZ's new series Bogans a boring affair, writes Michele Hewitson.

Some of our biggest TV talent lies not in A-list actors and big name presenters, but everyday Kiwis residing in the provinces, writes Duncan Greive.

The first episode of MasterChef NZ included a fish dish that looked like prison food and a contestant who had never seen the show.